Well part of the problem of course is that English has many confusing exceptions to its basic rules. Really, why except possessive pronouns from the apostrophe before the s? And in some cases, people have tried to impose grammar rules from Latin onto English (i.e., rules about ending sentences with prepositions). So grammar nazis or not, I will continue to boldly split infinitives, and when appropriate use prepositions to end my sentences with. 🙂 Okay, that last case is an example where you probably shouldn’t end the sentence with a preposition… sue me :).

Petey

i think the reason the apostrophe isn’t there in the pronouns is that no letter is missing. the possessive ending for nouns in OE was -es, and the ‘e’ is now represented by the apostrophe, but in pronouns the -s was put directly on the stem (there will be exceptions perhaps because of leveling). so: ‘Johnes’ is now ‘John’s’, but ‘his’ was always that way.

Marthe Lépine

Interesting; thank you for the information.

Marthe Lépine

You think that English can be confusing? Have you ever tried to learn French? From what I hear, it is very difficult. A person can get around in ordinary life with a limited knowledge of English, but I have been told French is a different story (I would not know myself, since French is my first language).

Marthe Lépine

Maybe a good time for a compliment: I have never noticed any flagrant grammar or spelling mistake in Mark’s blog ever since I began reading it. Of course, English is my 2nd language, I could have missed something, but Mark seems to write to a much higher standard than what can be seen today both on Internet journalism and print. Plus, of course, I like what Mark writes!